Page:Shetland Folk-Lore - Spence - 1899.pdf/156

 the Ness. Here they were met by another messenger from trowland, come to hasten their journey; but when the woman caught sight of the angry sea, she stood hesitating to cross. This conduct so exasperated the trows that they transformed her and the two kits into stone. The three stones stand there to this day as a warning to others who should hesitate to obey the trows.

Now, from the following legend it would appear that such fears were unnecessary. There lived in Fraam Gord a woman called Catherine Tammasdaughter, who practised midwifery. One dark, stormy night, as she and her husband were asleep, a messenger from the trows appeared at the bedside. Instead of the goodman getting up and having a say in the matter, he is thrown by a magic spell into the most profound slumber, so that he is quite oblivious to his wife's departure.

Catherine is soon ready, and is conducted to the seashore, where a small boat